Get more done with free privacy and productivity extensions for Google Chrome

Here are 50 extensions that focus on privacy and productivity. With these you can take screenshots, secure your browser, keep your passwords safe, take control of your tabs, secure your connection, do more with Gmail, grab text out of images, and much more.

All these extensions are free and are available to download from the Chrome Web Store.

Published: November 2, 2017 -- 14:28 GMT (07:28 PDT)

Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

OneTab

When your tabs are in the OneTab list, you will save up to 95 percent of memory because you will have reduced the number of tabs open in Google Chrome.

I'm a Gentleman

I'm a Gentleman does one thing, and does it well -- it allows for easy downloading of images from a web page. You can press Alt and click to download, drag to download, or download every image n a page with a single click.

AutoMute

Are you getting tired of obnoxious ads blaring sound while you're browsing? AutoMute automatically mutes every tab opened in your browser, effectively allowing you to opt-in to hear audio in a web page, instead of forcing you to opt-out.

Google Bookmark Manager

Yeah, I know that Google Chrome comes with a bookmark manager, but it's hardly anything to write home about. In fact, it's so basic that I've declared "bookmark bankruptcy" several times and just deleted them all and started again.

Google Bookmark Manager is the bookmark manager that Google Chrome should come with.

Pocket

Not exclusively a Google Chrome extension, but it works in Google Chrome just fine.

Pocket is a place for you to put articles, videos or pretty much anything you want to later refer back to. Pocket an article or tweet on one device and it's instantly available across all your devices.

Discoverly for Gmail, LinkedIn & More

Blur

So much more than a password manager! On top of keeping your passwords safe and secure (and generating new ones for you to prevent reuse) Blur is also a privacy manager as well as a secure payments tool.

Unshorten.link

To go along with a URL shortener, you also need a URL unshortener!

Shortened links can be hiding anywhere. With the Unshorten Chrome extension, any shortened link (such as bit.ly or t.co) you click on will be automatically expanded and analyzed for malware giving you a clear view of where the link is taking you. Unshorten will also automatically remove known tracking cookies from the URL.

Google Keep Chrome Extension

Found a webpage, image, or quote that you want to save for later? With the Google Keep Chrome Extension, easily save the things you care about to Keep and have them synced across all of the platforms that you use -- including web, Android, iOS, and Wear.

PanicButton

PanicButton makes it easier for you to hide all of your tabs at once just by clicking on a button. They are then saved as bookmarks in a separate folder. Afterwards, the PanicButton turns green and shows you how many tabs are currently hidden.

Disconnect Search

Disconnect Search is a service that uses a specialized VPN to allow you to search privately using your favorite search engine. The reason to use this is that they claim they don't log searches, IP addresses, or any other personal info.

Strict Workflow

This extension allows you to enforce a 25 minute period of distraction-free work by blocking a whole host of time wasting websites (the list is customisable). As a reward, you get 5 minutes to blow on the websites of your choice before going back to work.

Privacy Badger

Like Ghostery, Privacy Badger is a browser add-on that stops advertisers and other third-party trackers from secretly tracking what pages you look at on the web. If it detects that an advertiser seems to be tracking you across multiple websites without your permission, Privacy Badger will automatically block that advertiser from loading any more content in your browser.

Hotspot Shield VPN

Need a VPN to secure your browser connection? AnchorFree has a tool called Hotspot Shield that's not only free to use, but is ad-free and totally unlimited. I've been using it here for some time now and it does what is says it does, and has been totally reliable.

Project Naptha

Project Naptha automatically applies state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms to every image your browser loads while browsing the web. The result is a seamless and intuitive experience, where you can highlight as well as copy and paste and even edit and translate the text formerly trapped within an image.

StayFocusd

The web is an infinite source of distraction. StayFocusd does what is says on the tin - helps you to stay focused on the task in hand by blocking your favorite internet time-suck websites and services.

Page Monitor

This extension allows your browser to monitor web pages for changes automatically. It can inform you whenever a particular page changes without you having to go and check every time, and it can even show you what the differences are.

I have a long list of websites that I keep an eye on using this tool, and so far it has worked flawlessly.

Social Fixer

Social Fixer enhances your Facebook experience and makes the site easier to use by adding a ton of great functionality. One of its most useful features is allowing you to filter out junk (might be just what you need to get rid of all those political posts swamping your feed right now).

If you are a Google Chrome user and you're not making use of extensions, then you are really missing out. Here is a selection of extensions aimed specifically at boosting your productivity and privacy.
(Updated Nov 2017)

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uBlock Origin

Less an ad-blocker and more a tool to control annoying content. uBlock is lightweight and easy on RAM and CPU usage.